


Learning Curve

by auroreanrave



Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Male-Female Friendship, One Night Stands, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-17
Updated: 2013-11-17
Packaged: 2018-01-01 20:37:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1048322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/auroreanrave/pseuds/auroreanrave
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A thick frost in settling in over campus, a harsh gale is blowing fierce at her window, and Mercedes has a guest in her bed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Learning Curve

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place in an alternate universe post Season Three in which Mercedes, Mike, Quinn and Puck found themselves in the same university in the same city (both city and university are unnamed but apparently cold enough for an actual frost in November/December), because those four characters are among my favourite and little-used-in-canon characters. I may revisit them in an actual, longer-than-a-ficlet fiction at some point because I love them. Enjoy!

Mercedes stirs from the cocoon of warm blankets and flannel sheets that make up her dorm room bed and _freezes_ when she feels someone else beside her.

She doesn't do this. Well, normally, anyway. Mercedes certainly isn't a goodie-goodie by any stretch of imagination. Her faith aside, she isn't averse to dipping her toe into the pool of what Kurt had drunkenly nicknamed the 'well of bad bitches', but a one-night-stand? This isn't her.

Mercedes doesn't mind, not really. Well. She may a _little_. She remembers the frat party, the buddy system with Mike and Puck and Quinn. All of them looking out for one another; that was until Puck found a cheerleader he liked and then she can't remember much apart from staggering home under her bed and kissing him and letting him -

The guest in her bed turns over, the muscular arm looped around her waist tightening a little, and Mercedes looks out of the window. It's the start of December, and there's no snow outside, but a thick frost has settled in across the main campus and the rooftops, and the wind that she can hear through the window sounds harsh and cold. Winter isn't coming, it's practically knocking at the door.

Snuggling into the nest of blankets seems like the best thing to do, until she remembers the guy she apparently slept with last night, which, okay. Mercedes shifts in bed - she's _naked_ , that is too, a development - slowly moving until the face of the guy comes into place, brown eyes open and looking right at her.

"Mike?" Mercedes' shock must be evident in her face because Mike snuggles closer.

"Hey."

"Hey. Did we - "

"I think so. I was pretty drunk." His eyes go wide. "I didn't - I mean, I don't think I didn't - oh God - "

Mercedes lays a comforting hand on his arm. She can remember pieces in her head, knows she consented, and even though she's not entirely sure about what this means, she wants to make sure Mike is on the same page as her.

"It's fine, I know. Just... I'm not sure where we go from here." Mercedes is sincere. Mike has become one of her closest friends. He sits next to her in their English Literature tutorials and shares her love for bittersweet coffee indulgences and makes her laugh and -

Oh, damn. _Damn_. She doesn’t want to lose him, at all.

Mike is grinning at her, face open and honest, his long fingers trailing along the bare swell of her stomach. "I don't regret it. If that's - if that's what you meant. I don't. And I'm not going to pretend I know the answers and where everything is going, but..."

He trails off, pressing a kiss into her hairline. "I kind of want this. You. Me. _Us_. Worth a shot anyway. You make me happy."

Something warm surges into Mercedes' chest, something settles at home. She feels the same. Has done for a long time. Maybe only now she can allow herself to accept the feeling, the growing realisation Mike has transformed from a friend, one of her closest friends, into... well.

"Okay. You make me happy too." Mercedes says, smiling. Mike's grin is wide and blindingly brilliant as he leans down to kiss her properly, all hot and wet and sweet.

Outside the wind rattles in the courtyard, a day for long lazy nothings, and that is exactly what Mike and Mercedes, snuggled together and comfortable and warm, intend to do.


End file.
